@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@ import { extensionExports } from '../utils/extension';
 
 // rstack's lint shim calls `process.exit(1)` when the Rstack config has no
 // `define.lint()` (#93). The root config still lights the lint stack, so the
-// bridged runtime must survive the shim's refusal and report a healthy
-// runtime with nothing to lint, then pick up `define.lint()` through its
-// config watcher in the same worker.
+// bridged runtime must survive the shim's refusal and report `not-detected`
+// with the reason (the status bar's word for "no configuration here"), then
+// pick up `define.lint()` through its config watcher in the same worker.
 
 function lintExports(): {
   getFolderStates(): ReadonlyMap<string, StackState>;
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ function lintStates(): StackState[] {
 
 function isUnconfigured(state: StackState): boolean {
   return (
-    state.kind === 'running' &&
+    state.kind === 'not-detected' &&
     state.detail !== undefined &&
     state.detail.includes('define.lint()')
   );
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ suite('Rstack fmt-only config', function () {
     fs.rmSync(markerPath, { force: true });
   });
 
-  test('a formatting-only config keeps a healthy runtime and recovers on define.lint()', async () => {
+  test('a formatting-only config reports not-detected and recovers on define.lint()', async () => {
     // Still formatting-only; the lint runtime starts on `didOpen`, so the
     // first shim evaluation records the lint worker's pid.
     fs.writeFileSync(configPath, configSource(markerPath, false), 'utf8');
@@ -122,9 +122,9 @@ suite('Rstack fmt-only config', function () {
     );
     await vscode.window.showTextDocument(document);
 
-    // Bare `running` appears before the initial config refresh settles;
-    // only the detail proves the shim's refusal was classified.
-    await waitForLintStates('the unconfigured running detail', (states) =>
+    // Bare `running` appears before the initial config refresh settles; the
+    // folder and its runtime must both show the classified refusal.
+    await waitForLintStates('the unconfigured not-detected detail', (states) =>
       states.every(isUnconfigured),
     );
     assert.ok(fs.existsSync(markerPath), 'the lint worker never ran the shim');
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ suite('Rstack fmt-only config', function () {
       workerPid,
       'define.lint() must be picked up by the same lint worker, without a restart',
     );
-    // A healthy state: logged at info, so no warning was recorded.
+    // Not a failure: logged at info, so no warning was recorded.
     assert.deepStrictEqual(
       extensionExports().getRecordedWarnings('rslint'),
       [],
 
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ import {
 } from './worker/configDependencyProtocol';
 import {
   RslintVersionMismatchError,
-  runningRslintStatus,
+  liveRslintStatus,
   statusForRslintStartFailure,
 } from './status';
 import {
@@ -322,7 +322,7 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
   private readonly configDependencyEpisode = new NotInstalledEpisode();
   private configDependencyRetryPending = false;
   private configRefreshFailed = false;
-  /** Holds the status detail while the bridged shim finds no `define.lint()` (#93). */
+  /** Holds the `not-detected` detail while the bridged shim finds no `define.lint()` (#93). */
   private readonly unconfigured = new MessageLatch();
   private readonly configError = new MessageLatch();
   private startPromise: Promise<void> | undefined;
@@ -352,17 +352,18 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
     this.reportStatus(state);
   }
 
-  private reportRunning(): void {
+  private reportLive(): void {
     if (this.configRefreshFailed || this.hasConfigDependencyFailure()) return;
-    this.report(runningRslintStatus(this.advisory, this.unconfigured.current));
+    this.report(liveRslintStatus(this.advisory, this.unconfigured.current));
   }
 
   private handleConfigDependencyStatus(
     notification: ConfigDependencyStatusNotification,
   ): void {
     if (notification.kind === 'unconfigured') {
-      // Healthy, nothing to lint: no poll, no warning, no crash. The bridged
-      // config watcher re-runs the shim once `define.lint()` appears.
+      // Nothing to lint: no poll, no warning, no crash. The worker stays up
+      // and the bridged config watcher re-runs the shim once `define.lint()`
+      // appears.
       this.configError.clear();
       this.configRefreshFailed = false;
       this.configDependencyEpisode.clear();
@@ -376,7 +377,7 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
           `Rslint has nothing to lint: ${detail}. Add define.lint(...) to enable it.`,
         );
       }
-      this.reportRunning();
+      this.reportLive();
       return;
     }
     const wasUnconfigured = this.unconfigured.current !== undefined;
@@ -406,7 +407,7 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
     if (notification.kind === 'ok') {
       const wasMissing = this.configDependencyEpisode.clear();
       if ((wasMissing || wasFailed || wasUnconfigured) && this.isRunning()) {
-        this.reportRunning();
+        this.reportLive();
       }
       return;
     }
@@ -543,7 +544,7 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
           detail: 'the Rslint language server stopped',
         });
       } else if (event.newState === State.Running) {
-        this.reportRunning();
+        this.reportLive();
       }
     });
 
@@ -602,7 +603,7 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
         );
       }
       this.logger.info('Rslint language client started successfully');
-      this.reportRunning();
+      this.reportLive();
     } catch (error: unknown) {
       // Keep the initialized runtime available for configRefresh retries.
       // Rethrowing this classified rejection would make RuntimeManager close
@@ -632,7 +633,7 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
       void configuredNodeBelowFloor(configured).then((message) => {
         if (message !== undefined && !this.closing) {
           this.advisory = message;
-          if (this.isRunning()) this.reportRunning();
+          if (this.isRunning()) this.reportLive();
         }
       });
       return configured;
@@ -726,13 +727,13 @@ export class Rslint implements Disposable {
       this.configRefreshFailed = false;
       try {
         await client.sendRequest('rslint/configRefresh', { reason });
-        if (wasFailed && this.isRunning()) this.reportRunning();
+        if (wasFailed && this.isRunning()) this.reportLive();
       } catch (error) {
         // The worker verdict already surfaced this rejection as a real config
         // error. Keep the live runtime for config edits without duplicate logs
         // or a generic startup failure replacing its precise status.
         // Source-change races must still reach the existing startup retry.
-        // An unconfigured verdict is a healthy state, so Go rejecting that
+        // An unconfigured verdict is not a failure, so Go rejecting that
         // refresh (it keeps a last-good catalog) is not reported either.
         if (
           isConfigSourceChangeDuringTransaction(error) ||
 
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import type { StackState } from '../../types';
+import { type StackState, stackStateDetail } from '../../types';
 import { formatNotInstalledStatus } from '../../shared/notInstalled';
 import type { SupportedPackage } from '../../shared/versionCheck';
 import { RslintResolutionError } from './resolution';
@@ -58,21 +58,21 @@ export const attributeToCore = (
 };
 
 /**
- * An advisory wins over `detail`, which is the unconfigured bridge's
- * `no define.lint()` note: healthy with nothing to lint, so `running` plus a
- * detail like `idle`, not `disabled` — that would keep the dependency poll
- * re-evaluating an unchanged config (#93).
+ * An advisory wins over everything: a configured Node below the floor is worth
+ * fixing whatever the config says. `unconfigured` is the bridged shim's
+ * `no define.lint()` note, reported as `not-detected` with that note as the
+ * detail while the worker stays up (#93; AGENTS.md adaptation 7).
  */
-export const runningRslintStatus = (
+export const liveRslintStatus = (
   advisory?: string,
-  detail?: string,
+  unconfigured?: string,
 ): StackState => {
   if (advisory !== undefined) {
     return { kind: 'version-mismatch', detail: advisory };
   }
-  return detail === undefined
+  return unconfigured === undefined
     ? { kind: 'running' }
-    : { kind: 'running', detail };
+    : { kind: 'not-detected', detail: unconfigured };
 };
 
 /** A detected folder with no Lint runtime: `running` plus a detail, never a new kind (AGENTS.md, lint gotcha). */
@@ -85,6 +85,13 @@ const RSLINT_IDLE_DETAIL = 'idle';
  * this folder needs is not installed, so it will not lint" (`missingPackageOf`),
  * a fact worth showing over a healthy runtime or sibling folder — unlike the
  * shell's kill switch.
+ *
+ * A runtime's `not-detected` (the unconfigured bridge) ranks below `running`
+ * on purpose: a folder that also has a healthy native runtime is linting, and
+ * showing "nothing configured" for its bridged half instead would hide that.
+ * Across folders the aggregate keeps details only from folders at the worst
+ * kind, so beside a `running` sibling an unconfigured folder's reason does not
+ * reach the hover.
  */
 const STATE_RANK: Readonly<Record<StackState['kind'], number>> = {
   crashed: 5,
@@ -95,20 +102,6 @@ const STATE_RANK: Readonly<Record<StackState['kind'], number>> = {
   'not-detected': 0,
 };
 
-const detailOf = (state: StackState): string | undefined => {
-  switch (state.kind) {
-    case 'crashed':
-    case 'version-mismatch':
-    case 'starting':
-    case 'running':
-      return state.detail;
-    case 'disabled':
-      return state.reason;
-    case 'not-detected':
-      return undefined;
-  }
-};
-
 const worstKind = (states: readonly StackState[]): StackState['kind'] =>
   states.reduce<StackState['kind']>(
     (worst, state) =>
@@ -143,7 +136,9 @@ export const foldRslintFolderState = (
   const kind = worstKind(states);
   return withDetail(
     kind,
-    joinDetails(states.filter((state) => state.kind === kind).map(detailOf)),
+    joinDetails(
+      states.filter((state) => state.kind === kind).map(stackStateDetail),
+    ),
   );
 };
 
@@ -172,7 +167,7 @@ export const aggregateFolderStates = (
       statuses
         .filter((entry) => entry.state.kind === kind)
         .map((entry) => {
-          const detail = detailOf(entry.state);
+          const detail = stackStateDetail(entry.state);
           if (!detail) return multiRoot ? entry.name : undefined;
           return multiRoot ? `${entry.name}: ${detail}` : detail;
         }),
@@ -202,6 +197,6 @@ const withDetail = (
     case 'disabled':
       return { kind: 'disabled', reason: detail };
     case 'not-detected':
-      return { kind: 'not-detected' };
+      return { kind: 'not-detected', detail };
   }
 };
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import {
   type StackState,
   type StatusReporter,
   STACK_IDS,
+  // The hover renders a state's two halves apart: the kind as the icon, this as prose.
+  stackStateDetail,
   STACK_LABELS,
   stackCommand,
   stackCommandTitle,
@@ -56,7 +58,9 @@ const STATE_STYLES: Readonly<
   'not-detected': {
     icon: '$(circle-slash)',
     color: 'disabledForeground',
-    spellsOutDetail: false,
+    // Only set when a runtime found nothing to do, and then that detail is
+    // the one thing telling the user the stack is not working on purpose.
+    spellsOutDetail: true,
     severity: 0,
   },
   disabled: {
@@ -135,27 +139,6 @@ const tableColumns = (slots: number): number => 2 + slots;
 const CARD_WIDTH = 140;
 const CARD_WIDTH_WITH_NOTICES = 250;
 
-/**
- * The free text a state carries, if any — a crash message, a version
- * complaint, a disable reason. It is its own function because the hover renders
- * the two halves of a state in different places — the kind is the icon, the
- * detail is prose — and the switch is exhaustive, so a state kind added to the
- * union has to say here whether it carries words.
- */
-const stateDetail = (state: StackState): string | undefined => {
-  switch (state.kind) {
-    case 'not-detected':
-      return undefined;
-    case 'disabled':
-      return state.reason;
-    case 'starting':
-    case 'running':
-    case 'crashed':
-    case 'version-mismatch':
-      return state.detail;
-  }
-};
-
 /**
  * The one-line form: the state's kind, plus its detail when it has one. This
  * is what the log records and what the icon's native tooltip says, so its
@@ -166,7 +149,7 @@ const stateText = (state: StackState): string => {
   // The ids read as prose once their hyphen is a space ('version-mismatch' →
   // 'version mismatch'); no kind has a second one.
   const kind = state.kind.replace('-', ' ');
-  const detail = stateDetail(state);
+  const detail = stackStateDetail(state);
   return detail ? `${kind} — ${detail}` : kind;
 };
 
@@ -388,7 +371,7 @@ export class StatusBar implements vscode.Disposable {
       // `stateText` embeds arbitrary text a stack produced, hence the escaping.
       const status = stateIcon(style, stateText(state));
       const detail = style.spellsOutDetail
-        ? stateDetail(state)?.trim()
+        ? stackStateDetail(state)?.trim()
         : undefined;
       if (detail) {
         notices.push({ style, label, detail });
 
@@ -47,15 +47,36 @@ export const stackCommandTitle = (stack: StackId): string =>
  * `disabled` covers every "we deliberately did not start" case: the kill-switch
  * settings, Restricted Mode, and phase-gated stacks. The reason is shown to the
  * user, so it must be a complete sentence fragment.
+ *
+ * `not-detected` carries a detail only to say why a runtime found nothing to
+ * do after detection lit the stack; detection itself never sets one.
  */
 export type StackState =
-  | { readonly kind: 'not-detected' }
+  | { readonly kind: 'not-detected'; readonly detail?: string }
   | { readonly kind: 'disabled'; readonly reason?: string }
   | { readonly kind: 'starting'; readonly detail?: string }
   | { readonly kind: 'running'; readonly detail?: string }
   | { readonly kind: 'crashed'; readonly detail: string }
   | { readonly kind: 'version-mismatch'; readonly detail: string };
 
+/**
+ * The free text a state carries, if any — a crash message, a version
+ * complaint, a disable reason. The switch is exhaustive, so a state kind added
+ * to the union has to say here whether it carries words.
+ */
+export const stackStateDetail = (state: StackState): string | undefined => {
+  switch (state.kind) {
+    case 'disabled':
+      return state.reason;
+    case 'not-detected':
+    case 'starting':
+    case 'running':
+    case 'crashed':
+    case 'version-mismatch':
+      return state.detail;
+  }
+};
+
 /** Raw runtime failures that need dependency recovery, not shell gate states. */
 export const isFailedStackState = (
   kind: StackState['kind'] | 'stopped',
 
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ function refreshConfig(runtime: Rslint, reason: string): Promise<void> {
   ).requestConfigRefresh(reason);
 }
 
-it('keeps a bridged runtime running with a detail when the shim finds no define.lint()', async () => {
+it('reports a bridged runtime as not-detected with a detail when the shim finds no define.lint()', async () => {
   refreshOutcome = 'unconfigured';
   const { runtime, states, warnings, errors, infos } = createRuntime({
     mode: 'bridged',
@@ -383,7 +383,7 @@ it('keeps a bridged runtime running with a detail when the shim finds no define.
   });
   runtime.setBridgeConfigPath('/project/rstack.config.ts');
   const unconfigured = {
-    kind: 'running',
+    kind: 'not-detected',
     detail: 'no define.lint() in rstack.config.ts',
   };
 
@@ -396,7 +396,7 @@ it('keeps a bridged runtime running with a detail when the shim finds no define.
   expect(notices()).toEqual([
     'Rslint has nothing to lint: no define.lint() in rstack.config.ts. Add define.lint(...) to enable it.',
   ]);
-  // Healthy: the dependency poll has nothing to retry.
+  // Not a failure: the dependency poll has nothing to retry.
   expect(runtime.retryConfigDependency()).toBeUndefined();
 
   // An unchanged episode logs once; Go rejecting with a last-good catalog is